William Gallas reveals Andre Villas-Boas has held meeting to address Tottenham conceding late goals

Tottenham have conceded too many late goals this season

Andre Villas-Boas (GETTY IMAGES)

If matches this season lasted 80 minutes, it wouldn't be Manchester United at the top of the league, but Tottenham Hotspur.

However, there have been no rule changes and matches have lasted the traditional 90 - extra minutes during which Spurs have thrown away too many points.

Tottenham have conceded 10 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches - a record equalled only by bottom of the league Reading.

The north Londoners are currently sitting in fourth after a weekend result over Swansea which saw a positive change to the recent trend - a 1-0 victory.

That may have something to do with a meeting called by manager Andre Villas-Boas in which he addressed his defenders in a bid to end the concession of late goals.

"We've had a meeting with him (Villas-Boas) because we've been conceding late goals and we have to be a little bit more focused, a bit more strong," William Gallas told talkSPORT.

"Sometimes maybe we are panicking and we've let goals in.

"So we've been working very hard and we've had some meetings to look at the video to see what is good and bad, and against Swansea it was good to keep a clean sheet.

"In this period, we have a lot of games and some players are tired - they have already played more than 20 games this season, which is a lot. It's very intense.

"If we want to stay in the top four, we have to get all the players ready for the matches over Christmas and New Year, because we are going to be playing four games in 11 days."

Following the weekend victory over Swansea, Villas-Boas looked to explain how Tottenham have tried to improve the situation, although it meant another trip to the AVB management-speak manual to make much sense of it.

“We addressed it among ourselves in training by stimulating concentration in the last part of training,” he said.

“It is very difficult, because you can’t recreate the stress of a game environment. But we had a go. It does not mean that the problem is solved, but the players are conscious we have conceded in the past and they want to get it right.

“We have increased the complexity of the tasks the players have been doing at the end of training. The more complex the exercise, the more concentration they need at the end. ”

Tottenham's next match is at home to Stoke, who with just seven goals on the road this season, have the third worst goal scoring record in the Premier League. Spurs will be hopeful of another clean sheet.